You Always Meet Twice
by CUtopia
Summary: Police!AU - Fate goes funny ways sometimes, that's what Officer Marcus Flint has to learn when he meets his childhood sweetheart Katie again in a very unusual way.


"I'm your ex, you are a cop, and I just got arrested for being drunk and disorderly" AU – Found on Tumblr

As you'll see, I interpreted this loosely :)

Entry for the _Last Ship Sailing Competition_

Prompts:

(Action) Sitting in a tree

(Action) watching the sun set

(Word) innocent

(Object) a pack of cigarettes

(Color) golden

Bonus Prompts:

(Word) feverish

(Dialogue) "You'll be the death of me."

(Color) peach

(Action) burning something

(Object) Umbrella

Entry for the _September Event: Back to School_

(dialogue) "I was so depressed that I couldn't even enjoy the break-up sex."

(dialogue) "Can you please pretend that you have a life for just one moment?"

Entry for _Transfigurations_ at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

 **Task:** For this assignment I would like you to write about someone who is slow to a big realisation.

Extra Prompt: (word) harsh

Entry for the _Chocolate Frog Card Club_

(Gold) Imp; **Challenge:** Write about someone who tries to be funny and fails.

Entry for the _Greek Mythology Competition_

 **Gelos:** Write a fic with humor for a genre

Entry for the _Gringotts Prompt Bank_

Thanks a lot to my fellow Wanderer Liza, who read this over for me :)

(5020 Words)

* * *

 **You Always Meet Twice**

* * *

 _But it was not your fault but mine  
And it was your heart on the line  
I really fucked it up this time  
Didn't I, my dear?_

Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man

* * *

The day had started like any other, ordinary and with a coffee from the horrible coffee machine in the precinct. Like every time when his shift was about to start, Officer Marcus Flint went through his morning routine: arriving at work, changing into his dark blue police uniform, loading his gun and grabbing a mug of the coffee that tasted like someone had dunked a wet dog into it. At least this dishwater had enough caffeine to wake him up.

After a short briefing about extraordinary occurrences during nightshift from the officer on duty, Marcus checked that he'd finished all his paperwork from the past shift before grabbing his partner Graham Montague to go on a patrol.

After checking their jeep through, they left, keeping their eyes on the traffic while casually chatting about Montague's little daughter or the latest Tottenham Hotspur game. Graham probably was one of the only good friends Marcus had; his job was consuming most of his time, not leaving much room for a private life with many friends outside his circle of close colleagues. Not that Marcus generally was a guy that needed a lot of people around him, but it was a nice thing to go and watch football with Graham in the pub with a few beers, having finished a long shift.

"Kailey is feverish," Graham said into the silence of the car that had come up after they'd finished complaining about the tactics of the last football game. "But guess what, she loves it. Says that staying at home and playing video games with me when I'm home is more fun than school."

"She's definitely your daughter," Marcus chuckled, concentrating his gaze onto the street; midday was slowly approaching, and traffic was getting thicker.

"Give me a few days and I'll master this damn SingStar. I cannot believe that she can sing better than me with a sore throat! I'll practice when Jen brings her to the doctor tomorrow morning, and then I'll rock this fuckin' 'Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo' so much that Kailey will have a run for her tiara!"

Stopping in front of a red light, Marcus turned his head and looked at his partner with raised eyebrows, causing Montague to shrug.

"Don't act as if you haven't played Barbie with her last Thanksgiving. You'll probably be the same when you're a father."

"I only held Barbie for her so she could pick out a dress," Marcus insisted with an innocent expression, even though they both knew that he was lying – Kailey had a photo in her room where 'Uncle Marcus' and her were playing with said doll. "And if my memory about biology lessons are correct, I would need a woman to become a father. You may not have noticed, but I don't have any woman."

"You're an odd man. You look hot, you wear a uniform, the women are drooling over you, but instead of having all those women in your bed you prefer to spend the evening at home, drowning your loneliness in beer," Graham sighed, looking out of the passenger seat window while shaking his head.

"I'm not alone. I have Katie."  
Marcus sounded a little bit defiant, and his answer made Graham break out in roaring laughter. Actual tears were flowing down his cheeks as he exclaimed: "Katie is the fucking pot plant you named after your high school sweetheart! It wouldn't be so worrying if I hadn't seen you cuddling it... sorry, _her_ after our last pub crawl. Can you please pretend that you have a life for just one moment?"

"What kind of argument is that? I was completely banjaxed, you-"

"You know, I could bet that you're still in love with Katie," Graham interrupted him, completely ignoring that Marcus had tried to say something. "We've been partners since we entered the police academy, and I never saw you having a relationship that lasted longer than a few weeks. Remember Patricia? Guess what, she called me after your breakup and chewed my ear off, saying that you always seemed to compare her to, what a surprise, a certain Katie. You're still not over her."

Marcus' expression darkened, and it seemed as if he wanted to punch his partner – fortunately for Graham, his friend and partner had a police car to drive and wasn't too fond of crashing it.  
"You know nothing about our relationship, okay? So don't try to act as if you do, just because some girl said something while being upset. Katie and me... we..."

"You never talked about her in front of me, how am I supposed to understand what you to were, mate? I'm working with the few clues I can grasp, and those tell me that you're still not over her," Graham sighed, trying to talk as calm as possible to soothe Marcus. "If you don't want to talk about her, it's fine."

"Good, because I don't want to talk about her," Marcus hissed, his tone harsh and the grip around the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles were white.

"Okay, fine," Graham replied, grabbing his sunglasses from the instrument panelling and putting them on. "If you want it like that."

"Yes, I do."

"Great."

"Yeah."

"But still, why did you two break up if you were so madly in love?" Graham babbled on, but before Marcus could stop the car to throttle his friend, the radio crackled.

"Patrol Seven, do you read?"

Graham, still feeling Marcus' death glare on him, hurried to grab the radio and answered: "Patrol Seven, we're listening."

"We just got a call that a young woman is causing havoc in the park, south end. Are you taking over?"

"Understood, Patrol Seven is taking over," Graham confirmed while Marcus was turning the car around and threw on the lights and the siren to make all the other cars on the street rush out of their way.

"Finally something that keeps you from talking about my love life," he grumbled while he accelerated the car.

"Don't worry, we'll talk about this later."

"I hate you."

OoO

It took them only a few minutes to reach the park, and a big group of spectators were already visible from the spot where they had to park their car; they were all staring up a tree, pointing upwards and discussing. Upon taking a closer look while approaching, Marcus realised that a woman with long chestnut hair was sitting on one of the lowest branches.

"Oh, this is going to be fun," Graham chuckled as he watched how the woman took her peach coloured top off and threw it into the crowd, screaming something on top of her lungs that Marcus couldn't quite understand. From the several mini vodka bottles that soon followed the piece of clothing and made the crowd stumble a few steps backwards, he deduced that the young woman was rather drunk.

"Why is this going to be fun? She's hanging up there like a koala, and it will be hard to get her down again," Marcus replied with a questioning side-glance to his partner as they pushed through the crowd.

"Remember that naked homeless I had to chase last week? It means it's your turn to do the dirty work, and I would bet your freakin' pot plant that you'll have to climb up that tree," Graham grinned smugly as he gestured to the people to go backwards. "Ladies and gentlemen, please, would you retreat a little bit? Thank you."

Marcus cursed under his breath as he realised that Graham was right and looked up; between the leaves and branches, he could spot the woman, even though he was barely able to see anything else than a toned body, a white lace bra and a mess of brown hair that fell over her face.

"Ma'am? This is the police, would you be so kind to come down?" He called up, even though he wasn't really expecting her to obey. As if to underline what he'd just thought about her not reacting the way he would prefer, a piece of paper suddenly floated down from the tree. It was burning, and Marcus jumped to the side in surprise, only to see slender hands that were fumbling with a lighter and setting fire to another piece of paper.

"Hey, Ma'am! Stop doing that!"

"Take this, you damn cheating idiot!" The woman screamed with a heavy slur in her voice, obviously not hearing him up there. He sensed a relationship drama, and he really wished that the control center hadn't chosen Graham and him for this assignment – thanks to his partner, some sad memories had come to the surface again, and he would rather struggle with some violent drunk than to deal with heartbreaks.

"Ma'am, if you don't come down, I will have to come up!" he exclaimed, secretly hoping that she would finally hear him and obey, but she only blew a kiss on another piece of paper and crumpled it vigorously before burning it as well. Marcus cursed once again as he trampled the burning papers to extinct the flames that had threatened to set fire to the grass and took off his utility belt. It seemed like he would have no other choice than to climb up, no matter how unhappy he was about the thought.

"Here, take this. If I break my neck, make sure to water my pot plant, you moron," Marcus growled while shoving his belt into Graham's arms.

While hoping that he wouldn't fall down and break something, Marcus searched for the best spot at the tree to get a secure grip. It didn't take him long to climb up once he'd found the right side of the trunk, and releasing the breath he'd been holding while pulling himself onto the fork that the woman was sitting on.

"Ma'am-," he began, trying not to focus too much on all the smooth skin that was released, but the words got stuck in his throat as the woman lifted her head and shoved her hair out of her face.

"Oh great," she slurred, looking rather resigned while Marcus was staring at her with wide eyes.

His mouth was opening and closing, making him look like a fish, and then he managed to press out: "Katie."

"This got to be a bad joke," she mumbled, looking up at the bit of blue sky that was visible through the branches and leaves. Throwing her arms into the air, she screamed: "Is this a fucking joke, you mess of a universe?!"

A low chuckle shook her body as she let her gaze wander over Marcus again, taking in every inch of him, as if she was comparing him to the seventeen year old boy he'd been on the day they'd last seen each other.

"I wished I could say that you got fat, Marcus," she croaked, her voice shaking and suddenly, tears were gleaming in her brown eyes. "But you ass only got more handsome...It's some tasteless irony of the universe to make us meet on the very day I get dumped by the first guy I dared to love after you."

The first tears fell out of her eyes onto her cheeks and left a salty trail behind; immediately, a lot of old feelings hit Marcus – the fondness he'd always felt for her, and the inability to watch her cry. Hurrying to take off his jacket, he wrapped it around her shoulders; luckily, it was big enough to cover her completely, and then he pulled her into his arm as good as he could, sitting on a tree.

A prickling feeling shot through his whole body as he felt the familiarity of her warmth and breathed in her scent, and for a moment, he could imagine that they were seventeen again, dancing on their prom, oblivious of what was yet to come. He could feel her tears soak through his uniform shirt and her sobs were making him feel bad as he held her, feeling a little bit guilty about being one of the reasons why she was crying.

"It's okay," he mumbled in an attempt to find soothing words and smoothed her hair, feeling how her breath seemed to calm down again. It took a few more minutes until she looked up at him with red, puffy eyes, the faintest of smiles showing on her face. Marcus helped her to properly pull on his jacket, his cheeks reddening slightly as he got another good look at her bra and its contents.

"Okay, do you think you'll manage climbing down on your own?"

She gulped as she looked down to where Graham was standing and giving Marcus a knowing look, and suddenly, she leant against him, making him sway dangerously in his sitting position.

"Whoa, carefully... damn, you'll be the death of me."

"'m sorry," she mumbled into his chest before slowly sitting up straight again.

"I'll climb down first. Don't worry, I'll catch you if you fall," he explained, and though she didn't look too confident, Katie gave him a shaky nod.

Katie obviously was more intoxicated than he'd thought, as she was visibly trembling and uncoordinated as she started her descend; on the last bit of the trunk, she didn't seem to have any strength left and Marcus and Graham had to catch her. She was so shaky that Marcus decided to carry her, while Graham hurried to pick up all the items Katie had thrown down. After throwing the papers and the vodka bottles away, he caught up to the two of them, holding Katie's top in his left hand and her bag, which Marcus had obviously overlooked, in his right.

It didn't take long for the two friends to put Katie securely into the backseat of their patrol car, and as Marcus closed the door next to Katie, Graham grinned at Marcus and said: "So this is the famous Katie? Quite a whirlwind, isn't she?"

"Graham, please, not now," Marcus growled, rolling his eyes. "The last thing any of us needs now are your attempts to be funny!"

"Okay, okay, mate, calm down, calm down. How about we simply issue an official warning? I don't think this is worth a big report, and it wouldn't particularly help her if she was investigated on an emotional outbreak."

"I knew why I didn't throttle you earlier," Marcus mumbled and gave his friend a thankful smile and a hard pat on the back before they got into the car, deciding to take Katie to the precinct.

OoO

A light snore from the backseat had told them that Katie had fallen asleep as soon as Marcus had started the engine, and she only woke up when he parked the patrol car in front of the precinct. Even though she looked a little bit disoriented, Marcus had the feeling that her little nap had sobered her up a little bit, and she really was walking very normally as they went inside.

"This is so embarrassing," she mumbled, more to herself than to Marcus as she sat on the visitors chair next to his desk, looking a little bit better after a short trip to the bathroom. Her cheeks were red, but Marcus found that it looked rather charming.

Giving her a smile, he answered: "Don't worry, there won't be any charges, just an official warning that if you should misbehave again in the park, you'll be banned from it. I'm just writing a quick report and you'll sign it and then you can go home."

During his explanation, her expression had darkened, and as he started typing, she snorted: "Home. That asshole threw me out, after _he_ cheated on me for weeks knowing that I'd found out about him and that girl on the very first day. I was so depressed that I couldn't even enjoy the break-up sex. Long story short, I have nowhere to go. I'm homeless."

Marcus' fingers hovered over the keyboard for a moment as a thought rushed through his mind, and he tried to sound as casual as possible as he said: "You can crush at my place for a few nights if you want."

Inwardly slapping himself, he doubted his sanity for a moment. Surely a girl who'd just been dumped by her boyfriend and had been caught by the police causing a little bit of havoc, including having to be taken down from a tree by her ex-boyfriend, would want to sleep at the place of said ex-boyfriend. Why couldn't he just keep his stupid mouth closed sometimes? But on the other hand, he'd always tried to help her when she was in trouble, and it felt rather natural to fall back into this behaviour.

Katie was looking at him with wide eyes, surprise written all over her face as she asked: "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, sure," he replied, trying to keep any signs of nervousness at bay. A big smile suddenly lightened her face up and he could see the beautiful, joyful girl he'd fallen in love with in high school again.

"Oh god, you're literally saving my life, I... I would pay you back for food and all the other stuff, of course, and I wouldn't be there for long, I promise-" Katie babbled and only stopped as Marcus lifted his hand, giving him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, this just is the first nice thing someone has done for me in quite some time."

"Damn Marcus, this is ruining your ice queen reputation," Graham winked as he joined them, handing Katie a mug of steaming tea.

"I'm a nice guy. I play with your daughter whatever and whenever she wants," Marcus argued, glaring at the computer.

"Oh yeah, you've always loved pink," Katie sighed with a playful nostalgic vibe in her voice, sounding convincing enough to make Graham choke on his own tea.

"She's lying, Graham."

"But you had this pink stuffed unico-"

"It was my sister's!"

"Yeah, sure," Graham chuckled, grabbing for a napkin to wipe away the tea he'd spilled on his desk. Marcus could feel how his face reddened, and he hurried to hack the last few sentences of the short report into the computer.

"Graham, give Kailey and Jen a kiss from me, I'll go now. Katie, you can wait outside for me."

With these words, Marcus jumped from his chair and strode towards the changing room, hearing how Katie said goodbye to Graham who answered under his breath: "Don't be too wild, kids."

OoO

Marcus had hurried to change himself into his civilian clothes; while in the changing room, he'd feverishly tried to remember if he'd cleaned up his living room before driving to work. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember, and he decided to risk it. It wasn't as if he had to present himself in front of Katie – she knew how messy he could sometimes be, and she also was the only person he knew who was in fact more chaotic than him. So even if his flat looked like a bomb had exploded there, she probably wouldn't mind.

As he left the precinct, a slight drizzle was coming from the sky that was now painted in grey and blue; Katie was standing next to the entrance, a red umbrella with white dots protecting her from the rain. The sight reminded Marcus so much of the many times she'd waited for him after football practice, holding this very umbrella when it was raining.

Shaking the nostalgic thoughts away, he approached her, grinning as he handed her a motorcycle helmet, explaining: "Sorry that I don't have a comfortable car to offer."

Katie smirked as she stuffed the umbrella into her bag and took the helmet, putting it on while commenting: "So you're going for the bad boy image again, huh? Interesting, and kind of handsome. Especially when I remember your stuffed unicorn."

"Katie, you still want a place to stay at, right? Because my couch will suddenly be occupied if you mention that damn unicorn again," Marcus hissed, grabbing her by the shoulders and guiding her towards his motorcycle.

"Understood, officer," Katie chuckled, climbing onto the bike behind him and slinging her arms around his torso while he started the engine. To him, it felt oddly good to drive through the streets, having Katie holding on to him; he could tell that she was relaxed, and he had to admit that he was curious what else would happen on this evening.

OoO

Marcus was secretly releasing a breath when he realised that his flat was perfectly clean and no odd items were lying around – he really felt like this day had seen enough embarrassing and strange situations. He ordered pizza for them both, and while waiting for their order to arrive, Marcus brought his blanket and pillow from the bedroom into the living room, insisting that Katie should sleep in his bed. A small fight broke out over it, ending with Katie challenging him to sleep in his bed with her; Marcus didn't feel too confident about it, but he also was too proud to back down in front of Katie.

By the time the pizza arrived, the sun was shining again outside, and Marcus took Katie to the roof of his apartment building where the residents of the building had built a small garden. Sitting on the hollywood swing, they ate their pizza in silence; afterwards, they opened the last beer that Marcus had found in his fridge.

Taking the bottle from Marcus' hand, Katie suddenly chuckled; her eyes focussed on the sunset painting the sky in red and gold, she grinned: "This feels like one of those situations in which we had to be careful so our parents wouldn't catch us drinking alcohol."

She took a huge swig while Marcus nodded in agreement, the memory making him smile.

"They probably knew what we were doing, but expected us to be clever enough to hide it," he answered, blinking into the impressive play of colours that was illuminating her horizon.

"Remember what else we were doing secretly?" Katie asked, pulling a package of cigarettes from the pocket of her jeans and shaking them in front of his nose. "I don't even smoke anymore, but I was drunk enough to remember those three or four cigarettes I smoked with you and thought I could try again."

"Damn, back then I thought I would cough my lungs out. I'm so glad that I never tried it again afterwards."

"Yeah...," Katie agreed, her voice trailing off, her gaze focussed on the package before she looked to the side to meet his eyes. "One last?"

"Yes, sure," Marcus quickly said and they both grabbed a cigarette from the package, lighting them and breaking out into coughs after the first pull they took.

"Holy shit, it still tastes as disgusting as it did back then," Katie gasped, blueish smoke wafting around her face as she hurried to throw the cigarette onto the stone plates beneath them, waving her hand in front of her face. Marcus did the same, grimacing and grabbing for their beer to try and get rid of the ugly taste.

"Now I know why we decided not to be one of the cool kids," he coughed, unconsciously scooting closer to Katie on the swing. They both paused as their hips touched, their boy warmth mixing, and suddenly it was as if the light atmosphere was being taken away.

"So... what were you up to in the last few years?" Marcus asked, his voice a lot more quiet than before; he was curious, wanted to know if she'd achieved the goals which had caused their ways to part after graduation. He'd let her go back then because he loved her and wanted her to follow her dreams; he'd always known that he wouldn't leave this town while she was meant to strive for more. His father had been police officer, his grandfather... Marcus had always known that he wasn't intelligent enough to go for more, and he'd also liked the thought of joining the police forces. Katie on the other hand, she was a lot smarter than him, and she'd wanted to go to university, travel the world, see new things.

He'd broken his own heart and hers when he'd told her that she should go and live her dream, and now he wanted to hear that all this pain and all the tears had been worth it.

Katie took some time to answer, gazing into the sunset as if she was deep in thought, and Marcus half expected her not to answer anymore when she sighed: "I went to the University of London... studied Journalism and Modern Languages, spent two semesters abroad in Australia and Russia... graduated... I'm working for a big newspaper in London now."

Marcus nodded, licking his lips and took a deep breath; listening to all of this, he felt like he'd achieved nothing. Katie had travelled, she'd seen other countries... and he, he'd barely ever left this town.

"So it's been worth it," he whispered, trying not to sound too sad; it was as if the pain of separation was resurfacing, echoing through him.

He was surprised when Katie took his hand and looked him into the eyes with a cheerless honesty, saying something that he definitely hadn't expected.  
"I'm not so sure anymore if it really was worth it. All these years, something seemed to be missing, and no matter what I tried, this emptiness never went away."

Marcus gulped, unable to look into her eyes anymore; his gaze shifted and got caught by something that was dangling around her neck. A golden pendant gleamed fiery in the light, the delicate butterfly decorated with tiny rose stones bringing back the vivid memory of the day he'd put this necklace around her neck.

"You're still wearing it," Marcus whispered hoarsely, lifting his hand so his fingertips could gently touch the gold and the smooth skin that was lying underneath.

"Yes," Katie nodded, her voice barely audible. "And now I know what's been missing all the time."

They both lifted their gazes at the same time, and a pleasant shiver ran down Marcus' back at the intensity of her expression. His breathing fastened ever so slightly and his heart thumped a little bit harder in his chest as the meaning of her words slowly sank in.

A smile played around his lips as he leant forward, gently pressing his lips onto hers; his heart actually skipped a beat as she kissed him back, and it felt like their first kiss all over again, only that this time, they both knew what they were doing.

"I really fucked it up back then, didn't I?" Katie breathed against his lips and Marcus cupped her face, running a thumb over her cheek.

"No, you didn't. It was my fault. I could have gone with you, but I did chose not to. But maybe we just needed to be apart for some time to realise that we just belong," Marcus replied, not thinking long about what he was saying. It was what he felt, and he'd never had to hold back about his feelings in front of Katie, just as she'd been able to tell him everything.

"I guess so," Katie smiled, running a hand through his short black hair. "But fate has a wicked sense of humour."

"I guess it was a test of my love to have me bring you down from a tree while being drunk," he chuckled and Katie joined in; as their laughter died down, Katie pressed her forehead against his, taking a few deep breaths.

"This feels like home," she mumbled while Marcus pulled her closer, her legs coming to rest on his lap.

"Yes."

"Do you mind if I stay at home?"

"For as long as you want," Marcus winked and Katie climbed onto his lap, causing the swing to move rather strongly; Marcus had to hold her by the hips so she wouldn't fly off. They looked each other into the eyes for a long moment, then Marcus couldn't hold back any longer and pulled her close. This time, their lips crashed against each other in a passionate kiss that expressed how much they'd missed each other and how much they were longing for each other now that they were united again.

Marcus could barely remember when he'd broke their kiss long enough to carry Katie downstairs into his flat, but the last few golden rays of the sun were shining through the window as Katie pulled him down onto his bed. Pieces of clothing were carelessly thrown onto the floor and sheets tangled as they were kicked out of the way. Lips and fingertips caressed exposed skin, waking old memories while making new ones. It was an exciting mixture of familiarity and things that yet had to be discovered, and they took a lot of time to explore.

Confessions of love were whispered into the silence of the evening, turning into sighs and moans; nails dug into flesh in the desperate search for something to hold on to.

And as the moon rose, Katie and Marcus cuddled close to each other under the sheets, glad that an odd coincidence had caused their paths to cross for the infamous second time. While they were drifting off to sleep, they both hoped that this second time would never end.


End file.
